Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Trump Win to Spur Massive Building Wave in Jerusalem

“And the king sent and called for Shimi, and said unto him: Build thee a house in Yerushalayim, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither.” I Kings 2:36 (The Israel Bible™)

The election of Donald Trump has led to the fast-tracking of plans to build 1,400 new homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo as Israel anticipates an end to the “de facto” building freeze in place during the Obama administration.

An official from the Jerusalem municipality said the construction in Ramat Shlomo, which is located past the Green Line, is set to be approved in light of Trump’s victory. Trump is widely expected to ease the US’s hardline anti-settlement policy, which led to frosty relations between the two allies over the past eight years and strangled building in Judea and Samaria.

“In Jerusalem, it’s as if Trump is already in office,” said the municipality official on Sunday, the Jerusalem Postreported. “The problem is that nobody knows what his policies will actually be.”

He dismissed any denouncement from the lame-duck administration. “Even if the [current] State Department or White House issues a condemnation, it won’t be worth much at this point.”